The Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University has agreed to stop providing body-altering gender surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs for individuals struggling with gender dysphoria under the age of 19.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the hospital said it would “cease providing Gender-Affirming Care” after “a thoughtful and thorough assessment that revealed no other viable options at this time.”
“We recognize how difficult this change is for many of our patients, families, team members and community members. Our care teams remain committed to their patient families,” stated the hospital.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
“As we wind down these services over the next 90 days, our care teams will provide support and assist with safe transfer of care for existing patients, considering each youth’s needs with compassion and clinical judgement.”
The move follows similar policy shifts at other children’s medical centers across the country after President Donald Trump issued an executive order earlier this year telling hospitals they could lose federal funding if they provide surgical procedures or hormone drugs to children who identify as the opposite sex.
“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” stated the executive order.
“[I]t is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Shannon McKay, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group He She Ze and We, released a statement reported by local outlet WTVR saying she was “beyond disappointed in the decision VCU has made to cave into political pressure.”
“We will never stop supporting our transgender loved ones, their families, and allies who want to work alongside us. These are challenging times,” stated McKay.
VCU Health and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU had initially suspended such services in January “in response to clear guidance from the state.”
VCU and the University of Virginia were sent a letter in late January from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares ordering the institutions to halt those services.
“Any institution that continues to engage in such mutilation unacceptably and unjustifiably endangers not only itself and the Commonwealth, but also the vulnerable children of this Commonwealth,” wrote Miyares.
“Hospitals and institutions that continue to mutilate children place themselves at significant legal risk and face substantial financial exposure. Given these risks, my office will be closely monitoring this issue and the actions of the Commonwealth’s agencies.”
In February, the Richmond hospital announced it would resume some services for gender dysphoric children, but did not resume surgeries. The hospital said it would not take new patients for so-called “gender-affirming care” and planned to transfer existing patients to non-VCU hospitals.
Across the U.S., more than two dozen states have enacted policies banning the provision of hormone drugs and body-mutilating sex-change surgeries to minors with gender dysphoria amid concerns about the long-term risks of such interventions.
European medical bodies, such as those in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, have reevaluated their approaches to treating children with gender dysphoria in recent years.
Last year, the U.K.’s National Health Service instructed “gender clinics to implement a pause” on first appointments for those under 18 after the release of a formal review of how the government service treats youth with gender dysphoria led by Dr. Hilary Cass, the retired former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
The review, sparked by an exponential increase in youth seeking treatment for gender dysphoria over the past decade-plus in the U.K., found there is “no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”
In early July, the U.S. Department of Justice issued more than 20 subpoenas against clinics that are engaged in gender procedures on children.
In the U.S., other entities that have halted such surgeries for youth in recent weeks are Kaiser Permanente, which announced that a pause will go into effect in late August, and Children’s National Hospital in Washington.
